Dick Angelo was honored before the third match by pupil Fuerza Guerrera. The plaque Santo was given for 30 years of wrestling lists referee Toby as the programmer for this promotion. Santo was wearing an “EG” armband for Eddie Guerrero. The 01/01/13 match is likely a cage match. Show had strong attendance.

The CMLL Bodybuilding contest will take place 11/29, as previously mentioned. A ticket stub from any CMLL show in 2012 will get you in free.

GALLI (SUN) 11/18/2012 Arena GALLI, Villa Park, Illinois [me]
1) Adrenalina, Matt Creed, Tommy Heisman b Punisher 747, Rob Michaels, Willie BlingTecnicos won when rudo manager Dante DVS threw powder in his own man’s face by mistake.
2) Atomico b Matt KnicksMatt Knicks was wearing a Burger King crown, may have been celebrating his birthday, still lost.
3) GPA & Mojo Maqueen b Furia Roja & RipperGPA pinned Ripper after GPA’s manager Dante DVS hit Ripper with chair as he tried a quebrada. DVS had the chair ready to hit Ripper before Ripper even started moving to the ropes, and he wasn’t moving that fast. Challenges were made for a GPA vs Ripper match next week.
4) Pentagono b FunebreBoth men had their sons in their corners, and Funebre had Emperador Azteca as his official second. The young sons fought near the end. Pentagon appears to be a long time rudo recently turned face, but Funebre has a vocal section of supporters that overpowered any other reaction. They appeared to go with that at first, but eventually went back to their planned rudo/tecnico alignment. Bloody, mask ripping match. Rudos double teamed Petagono after the match until Noriega made the save.
5) Jake Shining, Jon Morales, Mason Conrad b Acid Jazz, Marshe Rocket, NegrotisticoIn the match ending free for all, rudo manager James Russo grabbed Jazz’s GALLI World Championship belt, blocked a Jazz punch with it, and hit Jazz in the head. Conrad and Shining both crawled in and covered at the same time for the win, and both demanded to get a title shot next week. It was eventually agreed to be a triangle match.
6) Bandolero, Golden Dragon, Rey Fuego b Calvin Bekham & El Traidorunadvertised match. Set up by something the rudos had done to Rey Fuego the previous week, though not especially clear. Despite the odd tecnico advantage, proceeded more or less like a normal match.
7) Emperador Azteca NC Rebelde Noriega [mask, hair]As in the other big singles match, the rudo faction loudly cheered for Azteca (the Mexican against a Puerto Rican), but Noriega was more supported than Pentagono. Both men bleed, Noriega getting a cut on his arm at some point. Noriega survived two run-ins – first by Funebre, then by Calvin Bekham – with each interfere hitting a big move, and walking all the way to the back before Noriega kicked out. Noriega started to make a comeback, then Noriega and Funebre ran back in. No decision was announced. Rudos got the razor and shaved a bit off the side of Noriega’s head. Rey Fuego & Bandolero belatedly appeared to make the save, and this sets up a six man for next week.

Video of the entire show is up in twoparts; the first part is mostly just the first match, and then things pick up.

This Arena GALLI is a corner store in an indoor mall. It’s big enough to put a ring in and some chairs around it, but not so much more. It’s got the ceilings you’d expect in a normal mall; you can do a snap suplex, but no chance at a vertical one. You’re coming close to hitting your head on a move off the middle rope, you’re not doing one off the top rope. After a couple near misses in early matches, Noriega gave Azteca high back body drop in the third fall, high enough for Azteca to break a ceiling tile with his foot. It was actually a great moment, made the match feel more real. There’s also not much room on any side to do dives, and the luchadors adjusted appropriately. I would guess there’s room for about 100, and there’s was about a 100 there.

I went to the show because Noriega was good, because I think Azteca is an ex-IWRG guy, and I was curious about what they’d do in the main event. (My money was on Azteca losing his mask, and it being ignored everywhere else, and I did have the camera rolling on my phone just in case.) Instead, I got a cop out of a finish. The rudos did shave a little bit of Noriega’s head, though just on the side, something he could get cleaned up tomorrow. And even if they did want to shave Noriega’s head, then just have him lose so your big match actually has a finish. This was just deceitful.

There’s a 50/50 chance someone now will kindly email me to explain to me what happened and how it shouldn’t have happened but it had to go down that way for some reason or another. Still, the flyer for the poster had Noriega holding a Azteca mask and Azteca holding a shaver to tease what would happen. GALLI was under no requirement to do either of those finishes, it’s their call, but not doing it sure makes it less enticing to come back. This was 100% usual indy wrestling aiming to be overly creative and ending up being overly annoying. (To be fair: I dunno how much of the rest of the crowd was there for the same reason; there wasn’t a big negative reaction to the finish.)

Rest of the show: I don’t get Atomico in the least and he’s very limited, but the crowd loves him. More power to him. Mojo McQueen is a Indy (Lucha) Papa Shango, don’t let anyone tell you differently I’m glad such a thing exists. Pentagono vs Fuenbre was the prototypical lucha brawl that goes on way too long and isn’t half as compelling as the people in the match believe it to be. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Pentagono’s kid and he seems a lot taller (and not much interested in this), while Mini Funebre never changes. Maybe Funebre swaps them out when they get too tall? The Soul Touchers and Negrotistico were other reasons for me to come to the show and they were good. There were a few moments of ‘why is Marshe Rocket HERE and not in Florida, still?” in that match. (No offense to anyone else here.) The Mason Conrad group of gringos – that trio and Matt Knicks – appear to have spent an unhealthy time riding around the country in the same car, but also seem like they’ve improved the most since when they first turned up on GALLI shows years ago. A lot of the lucha guys are about the same, but they’re definitely better. Bekham was an interesting character but a 3 tecnico vs 2 rudo match didn’t work for obvious reasons, including insisting on working it the normal length. Not everything has to go 12 minutes, the handicap sides should’ve changed the match.

The news you may actually care about: GALLI hyped Extreme Tiger coming in to Chicago next Sunday. MedioTiempo had the story earlier today: he’ll be signing autographs on Sunday, wrestling an opponent TBA on the show, then running a seminar the next night. It’s already apparent Tiger didn’t quit AAA and hope things come together, he knew he had offers out there waiting for him (making the move less of a risk.) I wonder who he’ll end up with in Japan…

Perros del Mal and DTU have agreed to share talent and work together. This seems like great deal for the Perros del Mal early match guys, who barely work. As part of the deal, the DTU show at Arena Lopez Mateos moves from 12/15 to 12/16 (Sunday) to avoid running against a Perros del Mal show.